User Comments ‘Don’t Build Communities’

The head of a moderation services provider asserts that comment sections have too narrow a focus to create online communities.

Chat Moderators head Robert Marcus criticises the vertical structure used by most news websites, which he claims leads to a series of disjointed comments on any given story and limits user-to-user messaging.

Speaking to Journalism.co.uk, Marcus suggests news websites can only create virtual communities through shared spaces such as forums.

“Commenting on news stories is a very narrow activity,” says Marcus.

“It doesn’t build community - it might build loyalty and interactivity for a website to some degree, but I can’t see where it builds community, because it only appeals to a limited number of people.”

He adds: “There’s no opportunity for me to discuss things with the other posters - just a list of ‘what do you thinks?’ that are not linked to each other.”

Launched in 2000, Chat Moderators claims to be the world’s first company to offer outsourced moderation services.

The London-based firm also offers consultancy services on areas such as ... how to create effective online communities.